My photography style can be defined as lifestyle photography. What does it mean? I am going to explain what is the concept of lifestyle photography with as much information as possible, together with lots of examples from my own work. All questions and comments are welcome at the end of this post.
In a nutshell, lifestyle photography means documenting the way you live. It’s a natural and spontaneous approach of photography.
It might be easier to point out straight away what lifestyle photography is not:
- It doesn’t involve forced smiles
- It doesn’t happen in a studio environment
- It doesn’t showcase people constantly facing the camera and posing in stiff positions
- It doesn’t alter the images in an unnatural way in post-production
A lifestyle photo-shoot is about documenting a slice of your everyday life, highlighting your personalities and your emotions. It is capturing the little details that make you or your family so very much unique, and the times you share special: genuine smiles, looks of love, hands touching, a favourite book or toy, a pair of cherished earrings from your grand-ma, the way you put on your shoes, the same game your child wants to play over and over again, etc.
As you can imagine, lifestyle photography sessions by definition happen in your most familiar places: your home or garden, the local park, your favourite part of town, at the beach… any place with a special meaning.
Each of the following photos focus on a unique detail, which blends in the story of the protagonist and in its surroundings.
Lifestyle photography applies also to events, such as weddings or kids parties. These events are documented in a photojournalist way, telling a story from beginning to end.
However, lifestyle photography goes beyond photojournalism, it has to be highly creative and original, to make an impression and a statement.
In my personal take, lifestyle photography is a perfectly balanced yet delicate mix of photojournalism and fine art. In other words: it’s creating artistic and original pictures while telling a story – YOUR story.
Let’s talk a little more about these two components of lifestyle photography – photojournalism and fine art.
Photojournalism
The way I tend to approach a photo-session, being it for an event or for a family shooting, is by taking pictures that tell your story. From the beginning to the end, I document in images each step, capturing your personalities, your emotions, and the distinctive features of the surroundings – from wide scenes to close-up details. I follow you, taking shots on the go, as the situation arise, without interfering or being intrusive.
In the examples below you can see that my lens is very discreet, yet it captures a precise moment of what can be the timeline of a story – a walk on the beach, a play in the garden, a fishing adventure, a life milestone…
Fine art
There is a component of fine art in lifestyle photography, and it often comes into play even before I press the shutter.
In some cases, I need to place you in a specific spot of the environment, according to certain factors such as light, surroundings and background. Even if the scene is somehow “set”, my aim is still to capture genuine moments.
To do so, I always encourage you to take a natural posture and to act as if I was not there. A lot of people would answer: “That’s easier said than done!”. Very true – I myself am not always comfortable on the other side of the camera… However, by taking some distance and letting you be just yourselves – having your own “bubble” where you can tell a story to your child or whisper sweet words to your lover – we will manage to.
Before you know it, you’ll have exchanged authentic looks or laughed to a joke, which I’ll have captured, as part of a beautiful image.
It’s also a perfect way to take beautiful portraits, or some baby posing pictures.
Have a look at some of the photos where I created the situation and just waited for the natural feelings to flow, before capturing them.
To sum up: finding the perfect mix between these two ways of photographing is what I am always after. Composing and strategically placing people give artistic images, while capturing genuine moments; in between those composed scenes, I follow you and keep documenting your moments of life, your lifestyle, in a photojournalistic way.